It was a dark and snowy night somewhere around 9:30 pm and there we are, at the dog park and would you believe I actually saw some people there. Sheesh! I guess there are others as wacky as me.

 

Anyway, we are walking along the path and then Chena starts jumping and barking at a dark thing in the snow. Is it a stick? She continued to growl at it and bark at it, paw at it and try to pounce on it - all at the same time. It was rather amusing to watch. So what was it?

 

It was a .... beer bottle of all things.  After she told off the beer bottle by growling and barking at it,  she made friends with it, licked it and then picked it up and ran with it for a while and eventually deserted it.  Odd.

 

Ghosts and The Mind

Have you ever seen something and then looked again and it wasn't there? Was it a ghost or something your mind created?

Sometimes we see things that don't actually exist. We hallucinate all the time. For example, have you ever lost your keys and looked everywhere only to find them right in front of you? In your search, you must have seen that area at least half a dozen times and yet didn't see the keys. I'll bet you can think of a time when you saw a friend's face in a crowd only to discover it wasn't your friend after all. How many times have you seen something in the shadow that appeared to be one thing but was not? Have you ever thought that the traffic light was still red when it had already changed to green?  

So, when someone says that they saw a ghost, what did they really see?

What else could it be? 

What we see is not recorded like a photograph from a camera. The image our eyes actually see is much different than what our brain interprets.

  “The brain does not ‘see’, ‘hear’ or ‘feel’ the ouside world. It constructs it in response to stimuli. The stimuli usually come from outside – lightwaves, for example, bounce off objects and then hit the light-sensivtive neurons in the eye. These stimulate the brain to create an image that accords with the information it is receiving. Sometimes, however, the brain either misreads the incoming information (creating an illusion) or generates its own stimuli which it then interprets as coming froom the outside. When this happens there may be no way – other than by deduction – for someone to work out whether what they are sensing is really in the outside world or only in their mind.” [Source: Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter, pg.204]

So, our brain has to translate what our eyes see and create the picture before us. The brain also doesn't like to leave things unresolved so when you glance at something, your brain fills in the rest of the picture. You may glance at a room and actually see very little of that room but your brain fills in the rest of the information. It is possible for something to come into your line of vision briefly (a bag moving in the wind) and your mind makes an error and creates the vision of a person instead of what the object really was.  It's less romantic than a ghost.   

Could it be a ghost?  Well, we have no scientific evidence of the existence of ghosts. Never mind what all the TV shows, books or personal testimony tell you - they all come from the same source -- someone else's experience and as I've just demonstrated above, the brain can fool us into thinking something exists when it doesn't.  

The next important thing to know about the brain is that the unconscious will work really hard to make our beliefs real.  The U/C will sort through all the data that your memory has collected that corresponds (even remotely) to the belief and thus creates a convincing case; however, the bits and pieces of memories are not accurate. The recording of a memory is not like a video camera capturing a scene. Memory is very, very subjective.  

The components of a memory come from different parts of your brain. What you saw at the time gets translated into what you think you saw and each time that memory gets brought back to the surface, it changes slightly because your perspective changes. What you heard at the time of the incident gets stored as your interpretation of what someone said. When we process an audio file, we have to decipher tone of voice and meaning of the message. Once again, what we hear is not always what was actually said. How many times have you heard someone say, "That's not what I said." So many misunderstandings occur as a result of misinterpretation of what you hear. So, given that ... your auditory memory of the incident is general at best.  

Emotions play a large role in the memory movie. The brain has to put meaning to the incident that occurred and what ever your emotion was at the time affects the perspective of the memory. The stronger the emotion, the more impact the memory will have and the easier it will be to recall. This is the basis of how phobias are created.  

So … do you still think you saw a ghost?

 

It was a cold and snowy day and so I waited until the evening (because it would be warmer ... not) to take Kachina to the dog park so she could run around off leash (and I wouldn't have to walk that far). So I bundled up - looked like a total dork and then rationalized it with a,  "It's not like anyone is crazy enough to come out on a night like this (except me)". Besides, it's not like anyone would recognize me. 

 

Anyway, so we are out there in the frozen tundra of the dog park - all alone and Kachina is feeling playful (trying to get me to chase her ... LOL ... as if I could if I wanted do in my snow gear).  This white truck pulls up and the guy lets out two medium sized dogs (shep X ... one of them anyway) and both approach Kachina. She lets them sniff her and she sniffs them - surprised? I was. 

 

After the introduction was over, it was time for a game of chase.  Kachina was being chased by the bigger of the two dogs. Wow - can she ever run fast!!! She was practically doing laps around the poor dog chasing her. It is a beautiful thing to see. It was a little surprising that she was allowing herself to be chased but then having seen her in action, it would hardly be sport for her to do the chasing.  No fights.  I left the park elated...my dog can still be social. Yay!!!

 

This evening we went back to the park. It was colder than last night and I looked like a terrorist woman (everything covered except my eyes) or bank robber.  Saw another dog, dob/shep X and they looked at each other but there was no play interest. 

 

Kachina did go for a run on her own. I wish she would have continued for a while as it would have saved me some walking ... more like trudging. 

 

I can't wait until it warms up and we can go bike riding!